After a few minutes of darting across the sunbaked court, most of us were left panting and sweating. But there was no time to rest. We were immediately tested on how well we could throw a ball across the court with a single bounce.

“Herkey and jerkey” was how the assistant manger of ball persons, Cathie Delaney, described our movements across the court. So, not good.

“We want the ball people to move like little gazelles,” she said.

That’s probably why the average ballperson is 16. Last year, 206,224 balls were plucked up by ballpeople at the tournament, according to the U.S.T.A.

After the tryout, we asked our coach if we would have been called back for a second round of tryouts.